A Number - Language

Language

The use of language in A Number is unique and slightly confusing and hard to follow. The dialogue is “hovering between the weirdly stylish and everyday inarticulate chat.” This choice of language shows a casual conversation, but obviously in a different time, in this case the future. The dialogue is very repetitive, many words being repeated more than once in the same sentence, and sentences are often incomplete and thoughts never finished. One character is known as B2 to distinguish him from the other clones, one writer labels it as “clone-speak.” The same writer describes the language as “futuristic too- sentences incomplete, compressed, abbreviated in a kind of shortish hand.” The rhythm that Churchill chose for A Number is a normal pace. The dialogue is just normal conversation between people so it is neither fast nor slow; the sentences may be shortened, but the rhythm is normal. Churchill uses a device known as dissonance throughout the play. Dissonance is a subtle sense of disharmony, tension, or imbalance within the words chosen in the play. The sentences do not flow smoothly from one to the next, they are choppy and harsh. “It wasn’t perfect. It was the best I could do, I wasn’t very I was I was always and it’s a blur to be honest but it was I promise you the best.”